Home Alone 2 - Lost In New York

Christmas 1992. The cinema was still playing the sequel, I was sitting at my computer trying to figure out how to survive the first level without becoming a target for Harry and Marv. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York from Manley and Associates was exactly the kind of licensed game that the nineties churned out by the ton — riding the wave of a successful film, released quickly, sold mainly to parents who wanted to buy their kid something thematic for under the tree.

The game follows roughly the same story as the film. Kevin McCallister finds himself alone in New York, the bumbling duo Harry and Marv chase him, and Kevin must survive. Four levels, environments based on the film — the hotel, streets, Christmas trees and other New York scenery translated into a side-scrolling view. An action platformer, nothing more, nothing less.

Gameplay is straightforward to the point of tedium. You move left to right, dodge enemies or take them out, collect items, survive. Keyboard controls worked decently for DOS era standards, but the game had no mercy for mistakes — difficulty ramped from acceptable to frustrating faster than was healthy. Kevin wasn't blessed with plenty of lives or checkpoints, so one wrong move meant redoing the entire section. That wasn't an exception in 1992, it was the norm, so complaining was pointless.

Graphically, it was a solid DOS title for its time. Sprites were recognizable, colors vibrant, animation basic — in this regard Manley and Associates did average work without stepping too far out of line. The SoundBlaster music only distantly resembled the film's theme, but back then you were grateful for anything that didn't sound like a dying modem. What unfortunately didn't materialize was a distinctive game idea. The game did nothing interesting with the film source material — it failed to mine the humor, the traps, or Kevin's ingenuity that made the film what it was.

Home Alone 2 is primarily a time capsule today. It reminds us of an era when licensed games existed mainly just to exist — as cheap merchandise alongside a t-shirt and briefcase with Kevin's face on it. For nostalgic browser play it has its charm: it's short, straightforward in controls, and evokes the Christmas atmosphere of the nineties nicely. If you played it back then, you know exactly what to expect. If not, it's an interesting artifact of the era rather than a game that will grab you by the collar.